Houses of Horror: Secrets of College Life exposes the dark side of fraternity and sorority life at some of America’s top universities and its impact on some of the young men and women who participate. One episode covers Operation Sudden Fall.
The series is available to watch now on demand and on Crime + Investigation Play.
University is a pivotal time for many young people – a place to make friends, build professional relationships and develop purpose. However, with all this unbridled freedom comes temptation. While it's not uncommon for students to drink and smoke at parties, some fall into harder drug use.
This is exactly what happened at San Diego State University (SDSU) when a 19-year-old female student died from a cocaine overdose in 2007. Her death sparked Operation Sudden Fall – one of the biggest campus drug busts in U.S. history.
The culture of drug abuse on college campuses
When a 19-year-old student died on 6th May 2007, SDSU officials knew they had a big problem.
Drugs weren't unusual on college campuses. Some even saw recreational use as a rite of passage. This liberalism surrounding drugs would eventually lead to the decriminalisation of recreational marijuana in San Diego. Since January 2018, people 21 years and over can legally possess up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and up to eight grams of concentrated cannabis.
Nevertheless, this young woman hadn't died from smoking – she'd overdosed on cocaine. The university administration knew it was only a matter of time before another tragedy struck, so they contacted the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for help.
Operation Sudden Fall
SDSU Police and the DEA launched Operation Sudden Fall on 6th May 2008. The name ‘Sudden Fall’ was chosen because college students often died quickly and unexpectedly from drug overdoses. The whole thing was a little reminiscent of the popular blockbuster 21 Jump Street, where two police officers go undercover at a high school to bust a drug lord.
The DEA sent dozens of undercover cops to infiltrate the university. Nobody suspected a thing – partly because the dealers were so inexperienced and partly because the DEA chose their most youthful-looking and street-wise sign-ups.
SDSU and the DEA suspected most of the illicit activity was coming from campus fraternities, so that's where they began their investigation. Officers blended in straight away, complaining about homework, joining sports clubs and going to parties – just like everyone else. It wasn't long before they were accepted into the university's inner circles.
Busting the instigators of the drug ring became even more urgent when another 24-year-old student tragically died after a cocaine overdose at a fraternity party. Spurred on, the undercover cops gathered evidence for a year, which culminated in several drug raids at college residences.
They arrested a staggering 96 people for dealing and possession, 75 of whom were students. Overall, they seized two kilograms of cocaine, 350 ecstasy pills, 50 pounds of marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, hash oil, methamphetamine, illegal prescription drugs, drug paraphernalia, three guns and $60,000 in cash.
What happened next?
The ethics of the drug bust reverberated around American campuses with mixed reactions. Some felt the crimes didn't warrant such harsh punishments. Six fraternity chapters were closed down, and countless students were arrested and kicked off their programmes.
Despite losing their college placements, criminal sentencing for the students was fairly lenient. Most were placed on probation or required to attend drug rehabilitation programmes. Some had their cases dismissed entirely.
Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, from the Drug Policy Alliance (a group that believes in drug education rather than criminalisation), said in an interview: ‘College students on any campus in this country are easy pickings. But these types of arrests are not the best use of the DEA’s resources. They should be targeting large-scale traffickers and distributors.’
However, SDSU and the DEA defended the investigation on the grounds of safeguarding all students against the use of illegal and dangerous drugs. Deputy District Attorney Damon Mosler, head of the district's narcotics unit, hit back at critics: 'We did the right thing. I think, frankly, more universities should step up and take these kinds of actions.’
According to UCLA Health, approximately 22 adolescents die from drug overdoses per week in the US. Upsettingly, teens have become the fastest-growing group to die in the country, largely because of fentanyl – ‘a powerful synthetic opioid analgesic that is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent’.
Joseph Friedman, a substance use researcher, said: ‘Teen drug use is becoming more dangerous...We are far and away the world leader in overdose death.’
